A warm snap. You gotta love it. It’s pushing midnight. I’ve my transom window open, wearing shorts and sandals. I was over at C4 Workspace earlier this evening–it’s nice to have access to a place I can use as an impromptu studio. I recreated the lighting and backdrop set-up of Monday’s shoot, but a bit in miniature. It was just me, two lamps, a black backdrop, a fan, a white shirt on a fake clothes line, and an electric fan. Not too exciting, but all I needed shot tonight was six minutes of a shirt billowing. It’s gonna be tossed into my current project.

Earlier in the evening I went with Deborah to the Alamo Exhibit at the downtown gallery of SAVA (San Antonio Visual Artists). About half of the works were by my friend Ramon Vasquez y Sanchez. He’s done quite a few paintings pertaining to the Alamo, as well as the other regional missions, mostly in an historical context. There were works of his both old and new.

Here’s a photo of Ramon with one the paintings from the show.

And here’s a photo I took of him with a mannequin back in December.

Oh, and here’s a piece he did that arrived in my email box as a digital Christmas card. I really like this piece.

The SAVA Gallery is a small place. But the place never got too crowded, because people came and went during the show. I saw a lot of familiar faces, and also got to meet some new people.

I’m glad Deborah called me up and dragged me out of the house. It was a beautiful day, but I mostly pissed it away reading and watching movies online.

Yesterday was a Luminaria Steering Committee meeting over at the Southwest School of Art and Craft. The big cheese over there, Paula Owens, has mentioned a parking-lot in the past, but I still don’t know where it is, so whenever I make an appearance at the Southwest School, I park at the downtown library. The parking garage is free for the first hour if you get your ticket validated in the library. Since I arrived early, I went into the library and checked out a book. I chose a Jules Verne omnibus. Now I know I bought a few Verne novels as a tyke from the Scholastic catalogue, but I can’t remember anything abut them. I’m fairly certain I read Mysterious Island and 20,000 Leagues, but I’ve also seen various movie adaptions. Anyway, when in Dallas, at my auction gig, I’ve had to research some first editions of Verne; and thus I’ve become quite interested in his publishing career, especially the relationship between him and his publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel (if you ever get a chance to examine one of the original Hetzel illustrated editions of Verne, you’ll begin to understand how the popular readership ate this stuff up).

I’ve been reading From the Earth to the Moon, and am pleasantly surprised. There’s a kooky sense of humor I wasn’t expecting. And the science appears absolutely up to date.

The movie I watched today was Grey Gardens. I don’t know why I never heard of it. My sister, some months back, brought it up. She said I needed to see it. She was, of course, right. It’s incredible. Documentary film-making brothers Albert and David Maysles shot and produced it, with a release date of 1976. It’s an unflinching look at two women, mother and daughter, both named Edith. They live in a crumbling mansion in East Hampton. The house has fallen into squalor–their once substantial fortunes have been reduced to near poverty. These two aging upper class bohemians, reclusive and out of touch with the world, spend their days feeding an army of cats roaming freely through the mansion, as well as an extended family of raccoons living in the attic. Big Edie was a minor figure in the entertainment world, occasionally singing on stage in the nineteen teens. Little Edie attempted to work her way into a dance career in the thirties, but with no more success than her mother. The film is full of moments where these crazy cat women might slip into impromptu song or dance or poetry recitation. They are both fucking nuts, but there is something appealing about them. They have never lost their innocence. Check it out. It’s a solid documentary, and not near as squirmy and depressing as one would expect considering the subject matter.